Meet Jennifer Lea, Founder & CEO @ Entry Envy & Hammers and Flip Flops

How would you describe the startup culture in Nebraska?

My entire network up to 2021 was based on 20 years in the legal industry. When I decided to start Entry Envy, I knew I needed resources that I wasn’t even aware existed. Fortunately, I knew one founder at the time, Joe Petsick, who was able to point me in the right direction of the startup ecosystem in Nebraska. I found it immediately welcoming and overwhelmingly helpful. It is an incredible group of people who understand this is a challenging journey and are there for one another through the good and the bad. Nebraska founders are ambitious, creative and dream big!

How do you balance taking risks and making calculated decisions in pursuit of innovation?

My tolerance for risk has increased significantly as a founder compared to when I started. I always say if I knew then what I know now, I probably wouldn’t have had the guts to go down this path, but I sure am glad I did. I use this simple question as my guiding light when making any decision, “What is in the best interest of the company?” When you own the company, it’s your “baby.” You’re emotionally connected to it and it is directly associated with your checkbook. It’s sometimes easier to make decisions based on your personal best interest, rather than what is in the best interest of the company.

If you can separate the feelings from the facts, and know that it is your fiduciary responsibility to always act with the best interest of the company in mind, and look at things from a longer-term perspective, you’ll make better decisions. Once the decision is made and you take action, it’s important to pay attention to data and pivot sooner rather than later if something is going south. So much of running a startup is trial and error. The only way to learn is to push through fear, test and learn. There is no failure in my mind, only feedback.

How do you define success and what metrics do you pay the most attention to?

Customer satisfaction is my number one indicator of success. I learned a long time ago growing up in an old steakhouse that the customer is always right. That has never been more true in a world where information can be communicated in a matter of seconds. We look at indicators for Entry Envy such as the number of new subscribers, the number of new followers and traffic to the website. We also monitor browser abandonment and cart abandonment closely. There are hundreds of metrics that you can see through Google Analytics and other resources, but you have to pay attention to the revenue drivers.

In an e-commerce world, it’s a numbers game of traffic. In other words, we need to know how many signs we need to sell in a month, what our website conversion rate is and then how many people need to visit our site that month in order to reach our sales goals. Every activity that we do through advertising, organic content, boutique markets, direct sales calls, etc., is all driven by the total number of visitors we need to reach our website every month. Browse abandonment and cart abandonment numbers are driven by how well our website is converting in terms of the customer journey experience and ease of use.

What are the top one or two challenges / opportunities Nebraska startups face?

In my experience, the number one challenge I have faced is not thinking big enough and using our market here as my baseline. Midwest consumers tend to think more conservatively and spend less money by comparison to other parts of the country. When running an e-commerce site that specializes in front porch home decor, the stigma of Southern Living magazine and iconic cover images of sweeping southern front porches are a real thing. Our number one subscriber state is Texas. If I had only gauged my product value based on who would buy it in Omaha, Nebraska, I would have quit long ago! It’s not that Omaha isn’t supportive, I’ve just found faster traction in the lower half of the United States and eastern coastline.

What is one emerging industry or technology that you believe will have a significant impact on the Nebraska startup ecosystem in the next few years?

Without a doubt, it’s artificial intelligence. It doesn’t matter whether we’re a tech-based company or an e-commerce company, we are powered by technology. It is moving so fast, and the companies that are harnessing it early on will make great strides ahead of the competition to increase the customer experience, improve efficiency, reduce expenses and therefore increase profit margins.

It’s overwhelming right now in a lot of ways and challenging to know which AI train to jump on, but you’ve got to jump on at least one for sure to get in the game. We are currently using AI to assist with virtual consultations and augmented reality to assist customers with visualizing our signs on their homes. The technology isn’t perfect yet but is getting better by the day!